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Captain G-ustavus Conyngham 



A SKETCH OF 

THE SERVICES HE RENDERED TO THE CAUSE 

OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 



BY 

CHARLES HENRY JONES 

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY OF SONS OF THE REVOLUTION 

1903 







PRKSS OF 

J. B. LIPPINl'OTT COMPANY 

PHILADELPHIA 



CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 



The Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolu- 
tion have recently restored the old tomb of Captain 
Gustavus Conyngham in St. Peter's Church-yard that 
had (until within a month or two) been forgotten for 
nearly a century. When the flags and flowers were so 
generously distributed among the graves of the heroes 
of the country on Memorial Day, there were none for 
the tomb of Conyngham. Yet this brave man, whose 
bones lie here, rendered the cause of Independence an 
exceptional service in an exceptional way. With his 
little cruisers he gave the Channel fleet of England 
and the statesmen of Europe as much, if not more, to 
think about than any other man of his period. There 
was so much of the heroic in the service he rendered, 
and so much of practical value in its results, that his 
fame was entitled to a stronger hold upon his country- 
men. 

His tomb stands in a remote corner of the church- 
yard, within a stone's throw of the house on Lombard 
Street in which he lived and died, and near the resting- 
place of Charles Willson Peale, the famous portrait 
painter of the Revolution. 

Within this old church-yard, which is now in the 
background of a great modern city, are the graves of 
many others who filled very prominent places in the 
earlier history of the country. Benjamin Chew, Chief 
Justice of Pennsylvania in 1774 ; Jacob Duche, the 



4 CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 

descendant of a Huguenot, who read the prayers at 
the opening session of the first Continental Congress in 
Carpenters' Hall ; Eobert Blackwell, who was chaplain 
of the First Pennsylvania Brigade at Valley Forge ; 
Du Simitiere, the celebrated portrait painter ; Stephen 
Decatur, whose deeds have shed such bright lustre upon 
our naval history, and his father of the same name, 
who was also a Commodore in the Navy ; Nicholas Bid- 
die, President of the United States Bank ; William 
Shippin, who was one of the officers killed at the battle 
of Princeton ; Richard Peters, Judge of the United 
States District Court, whose country house at Belmont 
is still preserved ; that eminent lawyer, Moses Levy ; 
William Plumstead, one of the Mayors of Philadelphia 
in early Colonial days ; a long line of Indian chief- 
tains, who came down from what was then the wilder- 
ness to hold a council with their great father, when 
Philadelphia was the seat of the white man's govern- 
ment ; Alexander James Dallas, who was James Madi- 
son's Secretary of the Treasury ; George M. Dallas, 
Vice-President of the United States, and Joseph R. 
Ingersoll, Minister to England. 

All these, and many others of lesser note, lie buried 
with Conyngham in ground that was the gift of Bich- 
ard and Thomas Penn, within the high brick wall 
with the marks of more than a century upon it which 
surrounds the block bounded by Third, Fourth, and 
Pine Streets. The little city of which this place was 
once such a conspicuous feature has grown to be one 
of the great cities of the world. There are seventy- 
two times as many ]3eople in it now as there were then, 
but amid all its greater activities it still turns with rev- 
erence to this spot so closely identified with the men 




AUGUSTATUS K.UNINGAM 



PORTRAIT OF CAPTAIN CONYNGHAM. 

From a Frencli print published in 1779. (By permissiou of The Outlook. 



CAPTAIN GUSTAVTJS CONYNGHAM O 

and times of its early history. This old Colonial 
church revives the past to those who look at it across 
the hundred and fifty years that lie between them, be- 
cause by some good fortune, or the good sense and de- 
votion of those who cared for it (it is hard now to say 
which), it has survived that devastating period when it 
was thought to be the part of wisdom to change or 
modernize everything. It had its narrow escapes from 
the ruthless hand of this modernizer that fell so heavily 
upon all the other churches of the city, but it has lost 
none of the stern simplicity of its old Colonial lines, 
within or without, which so distinctly identify it with 
the days when those capable people built their buildings 
upon a scale and with a taste that commands the ad- 
miration and imitation of the present generation. So 
people turn to it as the only perfect link that connects 
the present with a past whose lessons are well worth 
learning ; with the days when those who are buried 
there were worthy actors in the drama of life ; with the 
days when Richard Peters, who had been Secretary of 
the Province, preached there ; with the days when two 
of its clergy, Coombe and Duche, were conspicuous for 
their loyalty to the King ; with the days when its bells 
were taken down and carried to Bethlehem for safety ; 
when the officers of the British army, in their red coats, 
filled its high-backed pews, during the British occupa- 
tion, when the services were conducted by chaplains of 
the British army ; with the days when Washington 
worshipped there during the winter that followed the 
surrender at Yorktown ; with the long period that 
covered the ministry of Bishop White. 

But there is no tomb in St. Peter's Church-yard which 
claims more romantic interest than that of Captain 



6 CAPTAIN GU8TAVUS CONYNGHAM 

Gustavus Conyngham, unless it be the tomb of Decatur. 
Its modest inscription, almost obliterated by time, sug- 
gests nothing of the daring deeds and the heroic suf- 
ferings of this gallant officer in the Continental service. 
It is as follows : 

CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 

who departed this life on the 27th. Nov'r 
1819, in the 76th year of his age. 

Q Gone to his dear Saviour's Eest, 

cj United from earth he flies 

co Secured from harm he meets the hlest, 

H The pure above the skies. 

y> Ah ! who shall lament him, dead ? 

<} Yain man 'twas God's decree, 

c| Upon the Kock ho rests his head, 

gd Safe through Eternity. 

When the difficulties with the mother country reached 
the stage of active hostility it was clearly the policy of 
the Colonies to attack her at sea, where she was most 
vulnerable. Being a great commercial nation, anything 
that would interfere with her commerce would be most 
disastrous in its effects, and would be most keenly felt 
by her people in their homes. It was, indeed, about 
the only way the Colonists had of making the English 
people feel directly some of the horrors and inconven- 
iences of war which were being inflicted upon them by 
an invading army. During the war, therefore, pri- 
vateers under letters of marque were sent out in great 
numbers to prey upon English commerce wherever it 
could be found. The opportunities for this were not so 
great in American waters. There was comparatively 
little trading between the Colonies and England, but 
her commercial intercourse with the whole world was 



CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 7 

concentrated in the English and Irish Channels and 
the adjacent seas. This, therefore, was the most in- 
viting place for this kind of attack, but it was at the 
same time the most perilous, for these channels were 
narrow and these seas were limited in their area, and 
they were all carefully guarded by large, vigilant, and 
fully equipped English fleets. It therefore required 
qualities of the very highest order in the man who 
could successfully venture upon the perilous under- 
taking of attacking British commerce in this restricted 
field. 

Through one of those unknown processes by which 
certain men seem to be raised up for certain emergen- 
cies, such a man appeared in Philadelphia in 1775, by 
the name of Gustavus Conyngham. Born in County 
Donegal, in the far north of Ireland, in 1744, he had 
emigrated to America some time before the Revolution, 
with his father, and settled in Philadelj)hia, where he 
married Ann Hockley, who is buried at St. Peter's in 
the same tomb with him. 

Late in 1775 we find him on his way from Philadel- 
phia to Holland in the brig " Charming Peggy," upon 
what he supposed was an errand to bring back a cargo 
of powder, saltpetre, arms, and clothing. This, how- 
ever, was clearly not his real mission, and so, owing to 
adverse winds, it failed. Such a cargo could not be 
openly procured, and he was obliged to run the 
" Charming Peggy" stealthily in behind Texel Island, 
where, after some delay, the cargo was brought out to 
her by two Dutch vessels employed for the purpose. 
Contrary winds detained him in those difficult waters 
until it was too late. Through the treachery of one of 
his crew his vessel was seized by the authorities, and 



8 CAPTAIN G-USTAVUS CONYNGHAM 

he was put under arrest. But this reverse of fortune 
could not subdue him. Favorable winds at last spring- 
ing up, he disarmed the guard that had been placed on 
board, and put out with the " Charming Peggy" to 
sea. But fate seems to have had higher exj)loits in 
reserve for him, and so he did not succeed in getting 
away. He was soon becalmed, and finding himself in 
danger of recapture, he took to his boats and escaped. 



II 

When the American Commissioners, Dr. Franklin, 
Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee, reached France, early in 
1776, they found Conyngham there and took him into 
their confidence. A complete understanding having 
been reached between them, they filled up one of the 
blank commissions that had been entrusted to them by 
Congress with his name as commander of an armed 
vessel called the " Surprise." This commission was 
dated March 1, 1777. Conyngham was in London 
during that month, where, it is said, he procured the 
armament of the " Surprise." She was a fast English 
cutter of about one hundred tons, that had been pur- 
chased by the Commissioners in Dover and brought 
over to Dunkirk, which, for some reason, had always 
been a favorite rendezvous for privateers. Indeed, there 
never seems to have been a time when this fortified old 
town with its ample harbor was not the cause of uneasi- 
ness to the English. Captain Conyngham recruited his 
crew from among the idle American sailors that were 
detained in the ports of France and Belgium, com- 
pletely fitted out the " Surprise" as an armed cruiser, 
and sailed in her out into the narrowest part of the 
English Channel on Thursday, May 1, 1777. Skil- 
fully eluding the British cruisers that guarded the 
harbor, he sailed up along the coast of Holland, whose 
Queen was distinctly hostile, and on the following Sat- 
urday captured the English packet " Prince of Orange," 
from Harwich, carrying the mails to Helvoetsluis, in 
Holland. It was the third packet England had ever 



10 CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 

lost in these narrow seas. The next day he captured 
the brig " Joseph." With these important prizes he 
returned to Dunkirk within the week, to the surprise 
of the Commissioners, the uneasiness of France, and the 
indignation of England. 

The relations between France and England at that 
time were very critical. They had reached a stage 
when the possibility of war was freely discussed between 
them, but neither country seemed quite ready for an 
open rupture. The policy of France was like the 
character of its aged Prime Minister, the Count de 
Maurepas, — vascillating, weak, timid. He kept the 
Commissioners constantly vibrating between hope and 
disappointment. He was afraid to offend England by 
too open an exhibition of friendship for the Colonies, 
and he was afraid he would give offence to the people 
of France if he favored England too much at their 
expense. So he was trying to occupy a middle ground 
between them. Captain Conyngham had now boldly 
supj)lied England with another substantial grievance, 
which caused France great embarrassment. By her 
treaties she had agreed not to receive privateers or 
allow the sale of any prizes they might bring into her 
harbors, and she was afraid to disregard the obligations 
of these treaties. France had shown her friendship for 
the Colonies in many ways, and it seemed to her that 
now the Commissioners, by placing her in this awk- 
ward position, were lacking in a proper appreciation 
of the obligations of that friendship. The office of a 
Commissioner at this time was one of no little anxiety. 
The Count de Vergennes, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
expressed to the Commissioners, with much warmth, 
the displeasure of the court at the embarrassment 



CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 11 

Conyngham's movements in the " Surprise" had caused 
them. The Commissioners felt the force and justice 
of this remonstrance, and there was some disposition 
among them to shift the responsibility. Arthur Lee 
wrote that Silas Deane was alone responsible, as he 
had acted without consulting the other Commissioners. 
All, however, agreed that Conyngham had been most 
imprudent in bringing his prizes into a port of France. 
He had taken desperate personal chances in doing so, 
but he was of that heroic mould that does not always 
heed the voice of wisdom. 

This feeling at the court, however, was not shared 
by the masses. As the news of these bold and daring 
captures spread, the fame of Conyngham went with it. 
He became the hero of the hour. His deeds were dis- 
cussed in the coffee-houses, and prints representing 
him with his rattle-snake flag and his captures were 
displayed in the shop-windows. His recklessness 
appealed to the Gallic temperament of these people. 
They hated England, and he had defied her in places 
where she was feared by them. She had undertaken 
to subdue her Colonies, and this man had retaliated by 
striking a blow at her for them on her own coasts. It 
gave them an opportunity to sneer at England, and 
they improved the opportunity. 

Upon the demand of Lord Stormont, the British 
Ambassador, the prizes were released, and Conyngham 
and his men were thrown into prison. They suffered 
the form rather than the realities of imprisonment, 
however, and were soon released through the influence 
of Mr. Deane and Dr. Franklin, of whom they often 
spoke kindly in their correspondence as " the philoso- 
pher." 



12 CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 

The English were now in a feverish state of appre- 
hension. They had demanded that Conyngham be 
delivered up to them for summary punishment, and 
were deeply chagrined that he was not. Now that he 
was again at liberty they were sure he would be heard 
from again, but they were in a state of anxious per- 
plexity because they could not tell when or where he 
would strike. His movements were closely watched by 
British spies and agents, and he was denounced in their 
diplomatic correspondence as a pirate and a corsair, but 
in their fears they respected his courage and skill, and 
they did not question his motives. They were so im- 
pressed with his merits that they intimated to him that 
he might have a place in their navy if he would swear 
allegiance to the King. 

Though the relations between the French court and 
the Commissioners had been quite strained by this in- 
cident for a while, Conyngham's exploits had done no 
harm. The genuine dislike of the French for England, 
and their consequent friendship for the Colonies, pre- 
vailed, and the trouble soon blew over. Still the inci- 
dent was not repeated. Thereafter no prizes were taken 
into French ports. Later, when Conyngham got clear 
of Dunkirk in the " Revenge," he returned no more to 
France, but sought refuge for his cutter and sent his 
prizes into the more hospitable ports of Spain, where 
the policy of the government was marked by much 
more wisdom, firmness, and stability, and where the 
hostility to England and the friendship for the Colonies 
was much more open and pronounced. 

The Colonies, though they had sought for it, received 
no encouragement from the dynasties of Europe outside 
of France and Spain ; and even in those two countries 



CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 13 

it was hardly to be expected that those who believed 
in the basic principle of the divine right of kings to 
govern as they pleased could have much sympathy with 
the popular movement that was going on in America. 
That movement held nothing attractive for them, even 
as they understood it; but if they had been able to 
grasp its full significance, and could have foreseen the 
influence it was destined to have upon the future politi- 
cal and social conditions of the whole world, it would 
have been still less attractive. It was not sympathy 
that led France and Spain to show any partiality for 
America. It was their dislike and jealousy of England, 
and the opportunity the American Revolution afforded 
them to improve their relative position towards that 
country. 

A digression may be jjermissible here for the purpose 
of noting the fact that the alliance which France, by a 
change of policy, formed with the United States a 
short time later, not only reduced her to a state of 
financial bankruptcy, but sowed the seeds which ulti- 
mately bore fruit in the horrors of the French Revolu- 
tion. So there seems to have been some excuse for the 
caution and indecision with which she approached her 
alliance with the Colonies. 



Ill 

Although Conyngham's brief and successful cruise 
in the " Surprise" was a financial failure, its political 
results were important. The blows he struck were 
keenly felt by England, and they had materially 
widened the breach between England and France. 
Still, the English got a certain amount of comfort out 
of the way France had treated this incident, and the 
Commissioners felt a corresponding amount of irrita- 
tion ; so they lost no time in quietly pursuing the same 
policy along the same lines, for Conyngham's perform- 
ance had given them assurance that they could depend 
upon him for very important results. The difficulty 
in getting an armed cruiser to sea had been greatly 
increased, so they were obliged to resort to every form 
of deception. There was in the harbor of Dunkirk a 
French cutter called the " Greyhound," which the 
Commissioners had secretly purchased in the name of 
their agent, Mr. Hodge, and which they had proceeded 
to arm and equip under the secret supervision of 
Conyngham. These movements attracted the attention 
of the over-zealous British spies, and the commander 
of an English war vessel threatened to burn the 
" Greyhound" in the harbor. This threat was received 
with indignation by the French Government and the 
people of Dunkirk. At the proper time Hodge went 
through the forms of a sale of the " Greyhound" to an 
English subject named Richard Allen, who presented 
his papers in regular form to the Admiralty and asked 
for a clearance to Bergen in Norway, which was duly 

14 




ovz cnac&c/ie ^fcvtef^ 6co/ reef <-w/ . yF*?ie/\caax/c/t<: vf^/.'vv vv^rwv-/ 



*V.tf ^ « /^ . /.* 277^ 



THE TAKING OF THE HARWICH PACKET. 

From a Dutcb print of 1777. (By permission of The Outlook.) 



CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 15 

granted, and the " Greyhound" sailed, as a merchant- 
man, out through the narrow and difficult entrance to 
the harbor of Dunkirk on July 15, 1777. Hodge and 
Allen were required to give bond to the Admiralty 
that the cutter would not carry on privateering, 
but they had not taken these Frenchmen seriously. 
Conyngham had received from the Commissioners 
another commission, dated May 2, 1777, " as captain 
and commander of the armed vessel or cutter called 
the ' Revenge.' " He boarded the " Greyhound" as 
she came out in the roadstead, changed her name to 
" Revenge," and put out to sea. Her coming out was 
signalled to the British fleet in the offing by a vessel 
under disguise at the wharves of Dunkirk, and she 
was pursued and fired upon, but succeeded in making 
her escape. The " Revenge" was a little larger and 
swifter than the " Surprise." When she went to sea 
she had on board fourteen carriage- and twenty-two 
swivel-guns, and a crew of one hundred and six men, 
sixty-six of whom were Frenchmen. 

By his written sailing orders Conyngham was in- 
structed to proceed directly to America as bearer of 
dispatches, and was not to molest British shipping un- 
less he was attacked ; but the verbal instructions he 
received from Mr. Carmichael, the Secretary of the 
Commissioners, were exactly to the contrary. And 
these verbal orders he at once proceeded to faithfully 
carry out. One of them was to intercept, if possible, 
and capture the transports carrying Hessian troops to 
England for service in America. By the delays which 
prevented this, Conyngham says in his diary, " we lost 
a glorious opportunity." 

He was no sooner clear of Dunkirk than he began 



16 CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 

to make valuable captures. One of these, the brigan- 
tme " Northampton," was recaptured with his prize- 
crew of twenty-one men and taken into Yarmouth. 
The others he sent to Bilbao. 

The clouds of war began to thicken. Lord Stormont 
had a warm and protracted interview with that skilful 
diplomat, the Count de Vergennes, in which "he gave 
the reins to his wrath," as that nobleman wrote to the 
Marquis de Noailles, the French Ambassador in Lon- 
don, and during which the Count de Vergennes kept 
his temper. The dispatches about this time are full of a 
resentful and warlike spirit, but conciliatory as well as 
hostile methods were employed. The King of England 
remonstrated in friendly terms with Louis XVI., and 
prevailed upon the Empress of Austria to use her in- 
fluence for England with her daughter Marie An- 
toinette. Hodge, who had returned to Paris, was 
arrested and thrown into the Bastile. Allen had 
disappeared. When the order was given a few weeks 
later for Mr. Hodge's release, it was enclosed to Mr. 
Carmichael, the Secretary of the Commissioners, in 
order that he might have the satisfaction of releasing 
him in person. 

It will thus be seen how the troubles of the Colonies 
were agitating Europe as well as America, and that 
Conyngham was one of the chief causes that produced 
this agitation. His movements were a constant source 
of uneasiness and apprehension, often as fanciful as 
real. " This Ambassador (Lord Stormont)," wrote the 
Count de Vergennes to the Marquis de Noailles, on 
September 13, 1777, "says he has information that the 
famous Conyngham is preparing to return to our ports. 
I doubt it, for he could not do a worse thing." They 



CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 17 

were always dreading his appearance, not only in the 
places to which he came, but in the places where it was 
not at all likely he would be. 

In the mean time Conyngham was pushing his 
crusade against English shipping with unrelenting 
vigor and zeal. He sailed boldly along the east coast 
of England into the North Sea and the region of the 
Baltic, and back again through the Strait of Dover, 
into the Irish Channel, and from there across the 
rough waters of the Bay of Biscay. Keports (some 
of them, no doubt, exaggerated) constantly came of 
the arrival of his prizes in large numbers at Corunna, 
Ferrol, and Bilbao. One of these prizes, the " Black 
Prince," laden with wine, fruit, and oil, he sent into 
the French port of Bayonne under false papers cover- 
ing a vessel of Spain, which he had procured from a 
Spanish merchant in Ferrol. 



IV 

Over these narrow seas Conyngham set the sails of 
his aggressive little cutter, training his guns upon 
British merchantmen, and was beaten about by winds 
and weather, month in and month out, often suffering 
from a scarcity of supplies. The comforts of convoys 
or re-enforcements were unknown to him. His re- 
sources were all included within the limits of his own 
gunwales. His anchor was seldom cast ; his sails sel- 
dom furled. He only put into port when it became 
necessary. One cruise was very much like another. 
He would place a prize crew on board a capture and 
start her off for some port of his selection, and then sail 
on in quest of another and another until his little craft 
could no longer go without repairs, or his supplies 
were exhausted, or he had no more men to spare from 
his depleted crew. Sometimes he recruited his crew 
from the crews of his captures. His horizon was 
always changing, yet the outlook was pretty much the 
same. Sometimes it would include the gray coasts of 
England ; sometimes the dikes of Holland ; sometimes 
the forests of Brittany, and often the bold promontory 
of the Peninsula ; but more frequently it included 
nothing but the choppy surface of these restless, narrow 
seas. Very little within it escaped the keen scrutiny 
of his spy-glass, and the burden of proof was upon 
every sail he overhauled to show that she was not what 
he was looking for. And yet, though perfectly fearless 
and firm, he was a gentle man, with a pleasant ad- 
dress, patient to a degree, tactful and conciliatory, as 

18 




THE FLAG CARRIED BY CAPTAIN CONYNGHAM IN HIS CRUISES. 



CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 19 

he showed by the ease with which he overcame his 
difficulties at the Texel and in France, and in his 
success with his crews and the Spanish authorities at 
San Sebastian and in the Canaries. No stress of 
weather deterred him. During the equinoctial gales 
of September, 1777, we find him taking many prizes 
off the coast of Holland, which he took with him to 
Ferrol. Often he would have to close-reef his sails for 
days at a time in the teeth of driving gales (one of 
which sprung his bowsprit). But it was not always so. 
Sometimes there were bright skies and smooth waters 
and a cheering breeze that enabled him to carry his 
gaff-topsail and out-distance anything he came across. 
He was out in all seasons. But he was always the 
same preoccupied, weather-beaten, vigilant man, feeling 
the weight of the work he had on his hands ; and there 
was always the excitement of the chase and the capture 
to enliven him, and the sustaining power of success. 
He captured many prizes, and those he could not 
capture he destroyed, and thus became an ever-increas- 
ing menace and terror to British commerce. Often he 
was disappointed by the recapture of his prizes before 
they could get into port. Upon several occasions he 
ran fearlessly into English and Irish ports to obtain 
supplies. He kept himself constantly in communica- 
tion with the Commissioners in France, who were 
always advised of his movements, and whose instruc- 
tions he received from time to time. The French Min- 
istry was also kept fully advised of all he was doing. 
The King of England is reported to have said to his 
Minister that it would give him pleasure to be present 
at the hanging of Conyngham, if he could only catch 
him. 



20 CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 

There was no occurrence in that part of the world at 
this time that attracted more attention than these valiant 
cruises of Conyngham. On one occasion, upon arriving 
at Bilbao, he learned that one of his prize crews had 
been imprisoned by the Spanish Government at San 
Sebastian. He had placed them on board a French 
brig (captured by him to satisfy his crew), bound from 
London to Corunna, with a cargo valued at four hun- 
dred thousand dollars, which had been fully insured in 
England. With much difficulty he succeeded in ob- 
taining their release. Upon another occasion, while in 
this picturesque little harbor of Bilbao, the time of en- 
listment of his crew expired, and he only escaped seri- 
ous difficulty by the timely arrival of one of his prizes, 
out of which he was able to pay them. He made 
many cruises from the ports of this high and rugged 
little province of Biscay on the western slope of the 
Pyrenees, whose people still retained in large measure 
the independence of their sturdy forefathers, and whose 
sympathies were with the cause of the struggling Col- 
onies. 

From this time on he had constant difficulty with his 
crews. He was obliged to take such men as he could 
get for this desperate work from among the sailors of 
all nations. There were a hundred and more of these 
fellows, speaking different languages and presenting 
every form of racial temperament and disposition. 
They were not easily governed, even by this resourceful 
man. Discipline became next to impossible, and fre- 
quently his crew became rebellious up to the point of 
mutiny. But all sailors are citizens of one community, 
governed by laws peculiar to themselves. Conyngham 
was a master of these laws, and his cruises continued 



CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS C0NYNGHA3I 21 

with unfailing success until they were abandoned for 
other reasons. Towards the end he could only secure 
men for one short cruise, who demanded their pay and 
discharge as soon as he put back into port 

The last half of the year 1777 was now gone, and 
Conyngham had been on his cruises throughout the 
whole of it. He continued them unflinchingly and 
successfully during the midwinter weather of that 
region. He had sent his prizes, during this first six 
months of his service, to America, the West Indies or 
the ports of Spain, wherever he thought the cargoes 
could be disposed of to the best advantage ; but through 
the dishonesty of his prize-masters, the mischance of 
recapture, or the perils of the sea, many of them never 
reached their destination. He had met with so much 
success in the Channels and to the northward that 
English merchantmen were becoming scarce in those 
waters. So he concluded to cruise in a new field 
Early in 1778 he left Bilbao and sailed down the coast 
of Portugal, over a thousand miles, to the Strait of 
Gibraltar. During this cruise he captured many ves- 
sels. Upon his arrival at Cadiz he learned of a plot to 
burn the " Bevenge" at night, by boats from the British 
war vessels in the harbor. The small boats did appear 
about midnight, but finding the crew of the "Bevenge" 
prepared, the attempt was abandoned. Here he found 
funds, realized from the sale of one of his prizes, out of 
which he was able to refit. 

Returning northward he was driven, by heavy gales 
and want of supplies, into the strongly fortified seaport 
of Ferrol, on the northwestern coast of Spain. From 
here, after refitting, he made another cruise to the 
southward as far as the Canary Islands, during which 



22 CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 

he destroyed many English vessels and captured many 
more. Putting in at Teneriffe he was received with 
hospitality by the government. Here he had difficulty 
with one of his prizes. This was not an unusual oc- 
currence, for it is a rule of the law of nations that no 
captor can dispose of his prize until it is awarded to 
him by a competent tribunal. This was a formality 
which Conyngham did not always observe. 

From the Canaries he cruised out into the open 
Atlantic. All these seas were covered with British 
cruisers of every description, under instructions to 
pursue the " Revenge" into any harbor and destroy 
her. They were not able to catch him, but after he 
made his captures, and put his prize crews on board 
of them, the chances were they would be intercepted 
by these cruisers, and retaken before they could be 
gotten into port. 




Cap.* 
Cuxixgham. 




PRINT DISPLAYED IN ENGLISH COFFEE-HOUSE, DUNKIRK, 1777. 
(B.v permission of The Outlook.) 



V 

Returning to Corunna, Conyngham found that Brit- 
ish influence had closed the port against him, and this 
turned out to be his last cruise in those waters. He lay 
there for a while under the headlands, until he received 
permission to slip quietly into a small port farther 
down this bold and rocky coast of Galicia, where his 
coming would attract less attention, but he was warned 
to avoid the ports of Galicia in the future. So, after 
refitting there, he left European waters and sailed in 
the " Revenge" across the Atlantic to Martinique. 
From this point he made several cruises among 
the Windward Islands, protected American shipping, 
convoyed them clear of the islands, and captured, 
among other vessels, two British privateers. Leaving 
the West Indies in 1779, Conyngham sailed for Phila- 
delphia, where he arrived in February, — more than 
three years after he had sailed from there in the 
" Charming Peggy." He had spent nearly the whole 
of those memorable years, 1777, 1778, in these foreign 
parts, cruising in the waters along the coasts and 
through the narrow seas of Europe and Africa, en- 
countering almost every danger and difficulty an enter- 
prise of this kind involves, and overcoming them with 
the most complete success. While American soldiers 
were fighting the British at Brandywine, Germantown, 
Saratoga, and Monmouth, this brave young Philadel- 
phian was striking hard blows, all alone, at the same 
powerful enemy off their own coasts. He succeeded in 
eluding, by his skill, the English cruisers that were 
L.ofC. 23 



24 CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 

doing their best to capture him, and his name was upon 
every lip. His prizes were numbered by many scores, 
and the money realized by their sale amounted to very 
large sums. During this period his fame, in the line 
of his service, was exceeded by that of no one, not 
even by that of John Paul Jones. This was before the 
capture of the " Serapis" had made John Paul Jones 
so famous. 

England was alarmed and greatly exasperated. Eng- 
lish ships were afraid to put to sea. English merchants 
loaded their wares in French and Dutch bottoms. The 
rates of insurance became almost prohibitory. No man 
was dreaded more in England at this time than Conyng- 
ham. The Commissioners had come to look upon him 
as invincible. He had swept these seas with such in- 
trepid energy that the attention of all Europe was 
called to, his movements, and they gave rise to pro- 
tracted discussion and diplomatic correspondence be- 
tween the statesmen of England, France, and Spain. 

Arthur Lee wrote to Samuel Adams from Paris, 
October 4, 1777: " Great part of the English commerce 
is already carried on in French and Dutch bottoms, 
which circumstance alone will prevent them from con- 
tinuing the war, because it is a mortal blow at their 
marine." 

Had it not been for the friendship and good will of 
France and Spain, of course it would have been im- 
possible for the " Revenge" to have gotten to sea at all 
upon her cruises, armed and supplied, and refitted, and 
she could not have found the necessary harbors open to 
receive her prizes. As it was, this was accomplished 
with much difficulty and not a little deception, for this 
friendship was not at that time openly displayed. It 



CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 25 

only operated secretly, by intrigue, under the cover of 
avowed disapproval, and recognition of the justice of 
England's remonstrances. But America got the benefit 
of it, such as it was, though the channels through 
which it came were not always free from difficulties. 
Only the co-operation of friendly merchants in the 
different harbors made it possible at all. 

It is easy to understand the great service Conyng- 
hani rendered his country by this wholesale destruction 
of British shipping, the effect of which was immediate, 
but his services to the Colonies were more far-reaching. 
It was the policy of the American Commissioners in 
sending the " Surprise" and " Kevenge" to sea, to irri- 
tate as well as injure England, in the hope that she 
might be driven into war with France, and Conyng- 
ham did much by his dash and heroism to bring about 
this important event, which resulted in the French- 
American alliance and the surrender of Cornwallis at 
Yorktown. 

Conyngham did even more. He supplied, by his 
prizes, the funds out of which American vessels of war 
putting into Spanish ports in distress were repaired 
and supplied; out of which destitute American citi- 
zens landed by British cruisers on the shores of Galicia 
were relieved. When John Adams landed in Spain 
from the French frigate " La Sensible" on his way to 
Paris to take the place of Silas Deane, he received 
money out of these funds from the agents of the Com- 
missioners at Corunna and Bayonne. What other 
needs of the Commissioners in France Conyngham sup- 
plied the money for by his cruises is not known, but 
they were, doubtless, great and important. The " Ke- 
venge" was the only vessel that took prizes at that time 



26 CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 

in those waters. There were no funds provided from 
any other source for any of these necessary purposes, not 
even to defray the heavy expenses of the " Revenge" 
itself. The value and importance of Conyngham's 
services in these particulars cannot be over-estimated. 

He had practically cleared the Channels of Eng- 
land of British commerce. Prizes were not so easily 
taken because they were not there to be taken. So 
Conyngham set sail for the West Indies. 

Upon his arrival in Philadelphia, in February, 1779, 
the " Revenge" was turned over to Congress and sold at 
public auction in March. The State of Pennsylvania 
was one of the bidders at this sale, but the cutter was 
purchased by a firm of Philadelphia merchants, who 
intended to use her as a £>rivateer. She was afterwards 
chartered, however, by the Executive Council, to be 
used in protecting the commerce of Philadelphia and in 
defence of the coast, under an agreement which included 
Conyngham as her commander. Conyngham, however, 
took her to sea in April as a privateer for her owners, 
under his old commission, probably because the stirring 
life which such a cruise afforded was more in accord 
with his heroic temperament than the more wary ser- 
vice of the State, which would have kept him always 
on the defensive, and the State gave up its charter. 

Upon this cruise Conyngham's good fortune seems to 
have forsaken him, for, while in the vicinity of New 
York harbor, the " Revenge" was captured by the 
British frigate " Galatea." Conyngham was put in 
heavy irons and thrown into a dungeon beneath the 
British prison in New York City, where for fourteen 
days he lived on a scant supply of bread and bad water. 
He records in his diary how he was transferred to prison 



CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 27 

in England, where he was constantly reminded of the 
gallows that awaited him. At the least displeasure of 
his captors he was thrown, in his heavy irons, into a 
dungeon for forty-two days at a time, on an allowance 
of three ounces of beef and bread of the worst quality 
a day. In describing the severe and cruel treatment 
he received, he says, in his journal, that "dogs, cats, 
rats, even the grass, were eaten by the prisoners ; this is 
hard to be credited, but is a fact." He also tells how, 
with strength greatly impaired by sickness and this 
cruel treatment, but with spirit unbroken, he finally 
succeeded, after many fruitless attempts, in making his 
escape on November 3, 1779. While he was in London, 
in disguise, he was entertained by the prints he saw of 
himself, in the shape of a monster, in the shop-windows. 
When Congress heard that the English proposed to 
try Conyngham as a pirate the British Ministers were 
informed that he was a commissioned officer, and that 
three English officers had been placed in confinement 
to await his fate. He was also supplied with money by 
his friend Dr. Franklin and others. 



VI 

Captain Conyngham ultimately succeeded in mak- 
ing his way from London to Texel Island in the North 
Sea, the same place in which he had encountered 
such serious difficulties with the " Charming Peggy" 
at the outset of his career. Here he was taken, as an 
officer, on board the frigate "Alliance," commanded by 
John Paul Jones, who was then fresh from the de- 
struction of the "Serapis." The "Alliance" sailed on 
December 27, 1779, cruised down the English Chan- 
nel, and across the Bay of Biscay to Corunna. Here 
Conyngham left her and boarded the tartan "Ex- 
periment," bound for the United States. The " Ex- 
periment" was captured on March 17, 1780, by the 
British, and Conyngham was taken back to the hard- 
ships of Mill Prison, England. From there, some 
time later, he made his escape for the second time, to 
Ostend, and was preparing to embark from Nantes on 
the armed ship "Layona," undismayed, on another 
cruise, when he received news of the treaty of peace. 
From Nantes he returned to Philadelphia in the ship 
"Hannibal." 

These periods of adversity and cruel suffering are to 
be remembered by this later generation of his country- 
men, in connection with the years of his brilliant and 
uninterrupted success, for together they measure the 
debt of gratitude that is due to his memory. His im- 
prisonment was the penalty imposed upon him for the 
injury he inflicted during those years of fruitful service 
upon this implacable enemy of his country. 

28 



o o o 

& Si !-! 



W o 




CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 29 

Congress had from time to time neglected to settle 
Conyngham's claims for pay and prize money. Under 
the Continental regulations a captain and his crew were 
entitled to one-half the value of all uncommissioned 
vessels captured by them. Of this the captain was to 
have two-twentieths. They put off the consideration 
of every claim they were not obliged to meet, as the 
treasury was empty, and it was not until towards the 
close of the century that Conyngham's claims were 
finally adjudicated. His commissions had been taken 
from him by his captors, and never returned. The 
circumstances and conditions surrounding his brilliant 
services were such that it was difficult to produce legal 
proofs in support of his demands. Congress should 
have recognized all this. Should have been able to 
rise to a full appreciation of the requirements of his 
exceptional services; the strategy, prudence, and cau- 
tion, even the suppression or falsification of records 
that were necessary to insure success. All these were 
recognized as justifiable in this peculiar method of 
warfare. But they were not able to do so. They 
accepted the benefits of all his heroic efforts, and with- 
held the reward. His claim was rejected. Much of 
his later life was devoted to unsuccessful efforts to 
obtain justice, but it still remains a reproach to his 
country that he never received proper pecuniary re- 
ward for his valuable and patriotic services. 

There is something nearly approaching splendor in 
the valor and self-reliance of this remarkable young- 
man. He found no discouragement in treacherous, 
narrow seas with which he was unfamiliar and over 
which his enemies boasted of their supremacy, hemmed 
in by bitterly hostile shores on one side and by har- 



30 CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 

bors that were only friendly in secret on the other ; he 
was not discouraged by rebellious crews or dishonesty 
in those to whom he was obliged to entrust his prizes ; 
by exhausted supplies, and the uncertainty as to how 
or where they were to be replenished, or how his 
weather-beaten little cruiser was to be refitted. For 
nearly two years he sailed defiantly upon these ven- 
turesome reprisals, and always with success, and all 
from devotion to the cause of his country. It was this 
same spirit which pervaded Conyngham that made 
American independence possible. These heroic qual- 
ities in him came unscathed out of the terrible scourges 
of his imprisonment ; they enabled him to escape from 
them, only to seek for other chances of the same kind, 
that would give him still further opportunity to inflict 
injury upon the enemies of his country. 

It was not alone the perils he found at sea that 
Conyngham encountered. There was ever present the 
risk of being handed over to the mercy of England by 
the governments of France and Spain. As it turned 
out, this was not a very serious danger, but in the 
capricious and unscrupulous condition of French and 
Spanish diplomacy at that critical time it was a risk 
that many another man would have declined to take. 

It requires the assistance of the imagination to enable 
the landsman to understand what it means to be out 
on the open sea in a little cutter scarcely larger than 
the smallest boat that now runs through our canals, 
buffeted by the weather and currents and waves ; with- 
out hope of succor, hunted by an exasperated and pow- 
erful foe, and constantly confronted with the dangers 
and consequences of capture. To be always on the alert 
for something to attack single-handed and alone, and 



CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 31 

embarrassed by the difficulties of getting one's prey 
safely into port and disposed of after it has been se- 
cured. It requires rare spirit, endurance, ability, and 
courage in the man who can successfully master, as 
Conyngham did, the difficulties of a situation like this. 

It reads like a romance of the middle ages, — like a 
page out of the story of the buccaneers, with the same 
spirit of adventure running through it, though none of 
the greed, or thirst for personal gain. Such things are 
not possible now, but then they were recognized as 
among the calamities of legitimate warfare. The pri- 
vateersmen of the Revolution sailed upon their wild 
errands of destruction to resist oppression, to defend 
their rights, to assert their manhood, to vindicate the 
principle of human liberty, but, though their motives 
were better, and their methods more merciful, they 
sailed along the same desperate lines, displayed the 
same bold and desperate spirit, and employed the same 
desperate means as the buccaneers who, centuries before 
them, sailed the Spanish Main. It is true Conyngham, 
while he commanded the " Surprise" and " Revenge," 
was not, strictly speaking, a privateer. He sailed under 
a commission, not under letters of marque, and his 
vessels were owned by the government, not by private 
individuals. But this is a distinction more in name 
than in substance. 

Eighty-four years after his death the Sons of the 
Revolution have done but meagre justice to the memory 
of the most distinguished of these knights-errant of 
the sea by repairing the damage which time has done 
to his tombstone, and by calling the attention of his 
countrymen to the unrewarded services he rendered to 
the cause of American Independence, by the staggering 



32 CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS CONYNGHAM 

blow he struck at England through her commercial 
interests ; by the large sums of money he contributed 
in his prizes, which he was not permitted to share ; in 
the sufferings he courageously endured in English 
prisons. Few of her heroes whose names are more 
widely known have done as much. None were inspired 
by higher motives. Though he was called a pirate by 
the enemies of his country in the bitterness of the 
injury he inflicted upon them, his every act contributed, 
not to his own advantage, but to the cause for which 
he made such willing sacrifices, and risked so much ; 
and the English tribunals, when he was wholly within 
their power, were obliged to recognize the fact that 
what he did was all within the lines of legitimate war- 
fare, as a commissioned officer of the United States. 



JUN 27 1903 



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